Treadmill Machine on Hire for 45 Days: Rs 9.05 lakhs
Refrigerator on Hire for 45 Days: rs 80,000
Roll of Tissue Paper: Rs 5,000
Pleasure of watching Suresh Kalmadi stew in his own juice: Priceless.
There are somethings Money Can't Buy, for everything else there is His Master's Voice.
Well that was just my own take on the Common Wealth Games dramathat is opening out. For all I know, by the time the event starts it might work out well. And unlike Mani Shanker Aiyar, I don't wish that the games should be a flop. Much as I detest Suresh Kalmadi, and wish to see him hanged, quartered, drawn or any other painful form of death, if the Common Wealth Games ends up as flop, the embarrassment is going to be acute.
Now that said and done, the scale of irregularities, corruption, inefficiency and bungling is inexcusable and unacceptable. Organizing every major event, has it's share of problems and hiccups, you have accidents, you have challenges, and that is par for the course. But what is happening in the build up to the Common Wealth Games is just unacceptable. No way can we condone this at all.
Corruption
If it costs Rs 5,000 for a roll of toilet paper, you don't need to be an accounting Whiz Kid to make out that it has been massively over priced. And Rs 8,000 for a simple office chair, that does not cost more than Rs 1,000, whom are they fooling. Saala logon ko Ullu samajh ke rakha hai kya? And if you are looting for simple things like toilet paper and office chairs, the scale of Loot for larger expenditure, just escapes the mind.
Inefficiency
Stadiums that leak, venues that are not yet ready, vinyl flooring that peels off, false ceiling Collapsing. IS THIS THE WORLD CLASS INFRASTRUCTURE YOU HAD PROMISED US SURESH KALMADI?Forget about World Class, this is not even Mohalla Class. It is one thing to face construction delays, and it is another thing to cut corners, and come up with such shoddy infrastructure. And whose bright idea it was to have Granite Tiles on Pavements. DAMN YOU JOKERS, DON'T YOU KNOW GRANITE IS SLIPPERY. But wait I guess the kickbacks from Granite are much more. And add to it, roads that get Pot Holed, endless traffic jams, creaky flovers. The people who are benefiting are only the ones making money out of it.
The Commonwealth Games was meant to be India's pride, meant to show up India's rise as an economic superpower. The fact is we are not a superpower yet by any standards, have a very long way to go, but that is another topic altogether. But so far it is turning out to be a national shame and embarrassment. It is just showing up the corruption, lethargy, inefficiency and bungling, that plagued our nation for a very long time, and still continues to do.
And then there is the Master, Suresh Kalmadi himself. A vain pompous egoist, who in his capacity has done his best to ruin Indian sport. An arrogant jerk, who was displeased that his Highness did not get a seat close to the Vice President during a function, and walked away. Sure the person sitting next to the Vice President, was one of the wrestlers who had made India genuinely proud, by winning the Bronze, but such things escape his Highness Kalmadi. A brain Dead Moron, who claimed that Abhinav Bindra, won the Gold, due to Sonia Gandhi waving at the Indian athletes during the Opening Ceremony, man give us a break please.
But Kalmadi is only one visible symptom of the disease that plagues Indian sports. Of politicians and Babus, treating Sports Associations like their own Private jagirs, meant to be milked and exploited. And the Sportspersons in their Jagirs are the slaves, meant to be shown for entertainment, exploited, treated casually. Be it V.K.Malhotra in Archery, Priyaranjan Das Munshi in Football, all have just used the Sports Associations for their own personal benefits, doing Jack, for the cause of the game. The Commonwealth Games drama has a positive lining, it has just shown the need to free Sports and Sports Bodies from self serving Politicans and Babus. From greedy scumbags who treat them as their jagirs.
